Emus hirtus

It's difficult to comprehend that this large, furry and flexible insect is in fact a beetle. I'd say it rather gives the impression of a miniature predatory mammal!

This specimen was caught and kindly handed to me by a friend of mine. In 2017 I'll revisit this location and I truly hope I'll be able to find one myself.

Single handheld exposure with Canon 5DmkII fitted with a Canon 100/2.8 + diffused flash (Canon 270EX). Settings according to EXIF.

Sawfly on Blackthorn

Tenthredo sp. (possibly T. arcuata)10 mm

Early morning encounter with this wasp-mimicking sawfly, perched on a blackthorn twig (Prunus spinosa).

Stacked from 40 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 760D + Canon MP-E65 @1/8s, f/6.3, ISO200

Dewy Footman

Eilema sp., Lithosiini18-20 mm

I would have ignored this drab little moth unless I really liked how the morning sun lit up the grass spike it was perched on. For me, it serves as a reminder that every now and then, the least striking of subjects can be worth some attention.

I was amused to learn the English common name for this group of moths. Apparently it refers to the the muted clothing of "footmen" – a term that has been applied to household servants, infantry soldiers etcetera. Even if the reference is a bit dated, it seems apt and somewhat humorous which makes it easy to remember!

Emerald Damselfly

Lestes sponsa35 mm

This is one of the most common damselfly species in the late summer on my favorite location.

The warm yellow tones suggests that this may be a female but apparently coloration is not a reliable way to sex this species – you need to look at the tip of the abdomen to be sure. Thanks Stephen for pointing this out!

Stacked from 18 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 760D + Canon MP-E65

Odd little weevil

Tapeinotus sellatus4 mm

This little weevil have the habit of making this peculiar pose when it feels threatened. Let me assure you – this is really effective camouflage! Unless I happened to be looking specifically for small weevils I definitely wouldn't have spotted this one.

In fact – I almost didn't anyway despite looking straight at it from a short distance. I was convinced it was just some small piece of plant debris that had stuck to that leaf. The way it folds its legs up underneath the body successfully conceals its shadow while at the same time it erasing the contour. The awkwardly raised snout only adds to the debris-illusion.

Handheld stack made from 10 exposures, lit by diffused flash and assembled in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 760D, Canon MP-E65, Canon 270EX + DIY beautydish diffuser.

Toad Portrait

Bufo bufo, Common ToadSize: ~ 80 mm

I love toads. They always seem so laid-back and content. This specimen made a habit of hopping up the stairs of our porch every night, to feed on moths attracted by the light.

This is a single shot made with my experimental DIY macro-fisheye rig that I've elaborated on in a recent post.

Chrysotoxum festivum II

This is a stopped down single exposure cropped from a vertical image so the resolution isn't on par with that of a stacked image.

Canon 760D, Canon 100/2.8

Common Wasp ♂

♂ Vespula vulgaris15 mm

The long antennae means that you don't need to worry about getting stung! Only male wasps have these long antennae and since stingers are "modified" ovipositors they are absent in males.

This one was found as it was waking up on flowering field garlic Allium oleraceum an early morning in August.

Stacked from 36 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 760D, Canon MP-E65 @ 0.8s, f/6.3, ISO200

Mayfly ♂

Ephemeroptera, working on a more precise ID8 mm

What may look like a pink helmet are actually specialized eyes, only present in male mayflies. Citing wikipedia these upward facing "turban eyes" are sensitive to UV-light and thought to help males detect females flying above them during courtship. This species lacks the long elegant tail whiskers found in most mayfly species, but I still find it to be a beautiful animal. I'm always at a loss when it comes to narrowing down the ID with these – suggestions are most welcome!

Stacked from 12 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 760D, Canon MP-E65

Studio stack: Nocturnal Predator

Carabus violaceusSize: 25 mm

Studio portrait of this relatively large and abundant species. Found this specimen dead but well preserved underneath the bark of a large tree stump.

Stacked from 176 exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 760D, Canon MP-E65, diffused LED-spotlight, Cognisys Stackshot

Gymnosoma

Gymnosoma sp. TachinidaeSize: 6 mm

I'm always happy to find these compact colorful parasitic flies. There are a few very similar species and I have to check with the experts if it's possible to tell which one this is from the images.

Studio stack: Phoretic Mite

Like I mentioned in my previous post the little dung beetle came with an interesting bonus species. The round reddish formation is the second larval stage of a Uropoda mite. These deutonymphs attach themselves to insects such as this dung beetle via a stalk like structure called a pedicel.

Here you can see the ventral side of the mite larva. Though it's very "streamlined" in this stage, it's possible to make out legs and palps if you look closely.

This is not a parasitic relationship, but strictly phoretic. In other words, the mites does not feed on the insects they attach themselves to, but only use them for dispersal/transportation.

This was shot in the studio and stacked from 89 exposures of a dead and cleaned subject.

Lesser glow worm (larva)

Phosphaenus hemipterus10 mm

This is the larva of the lesser glow worm. My first encounter with this species!

In spite of its name, it's a beetle. In contrary to its larger relative the "Common glow worm" (Lampyris noctiluca) this, slightly smaller species does not produce a bioluminescent glow in order to attract a mate but only if it feels threatened.

This is two handheld exposures manually pieced together in Photoshop for a slight increase in depth of field.

Long hover ♂

This time of year this is one of the most common insects at my favorite location. As such, they are easily overlooked but they make nice subjects.

Stacked from 37 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Canon MP-E65 @ 2.2X, f/7.1, 1/8s, ISO200

Curculio

Curculio cf. venosusSize: 7-8 mm

Early morning stack of this long snouted weevil on a tiny acorn. I'm not 100% it's C. venosus – partly because this specimen seems to have been through some rough times with lots of its dorsal hairs appear to have been rubbed off and some kind of mud has adhered to its elytra and legs.

Shot in mid July 2015 and stacked from 28 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65 @ 1/4s, f/7.1, ISO100

Female Macropis

Macropis europaea9 mm

Early morning stack of this female Macropis bee.

Stacked from 27 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7 + Canon MP-E65 @ f/6.3, 1/8s, ISO100

Studio stack: Another Temnostoma

Temnostoma bombylans ♀14 mm

In my previous post I showed a Temnostoma vespiforme that had hatched from a piece of birch wood I had brought into my terrarium a few weeks ago. I later found another, smaller Temnostoma species dead in my terrarium. It turned out to be T. bombylans and this is a studio portrait of a female specimen. In many cases a portrait like this is enough to be able to determine the sex of a hoverfly – females generally have a wider separation between the eyes whereas in males the eyes tend to connect above the antennae.

Shot in the studio and stacked from 107 exposures of a dead/prepared specimen in Zerene Stacker.

Studio stack: Temnostoma

Temnostoma vespiforme, SyrphidaeSize: 17 mm

This relatively large wasp-like hoverfly hatched in my terrarium a few weeks ago. A month earlier I had brought in a nice piece of moss covered birch wood from the woods and apparently it contained a couple of Syrphid pupae.

I considered releasing it outside after shooting a few handheld flash shots of it, but it's been unseasonably cold and it wouldn't have lasted long so I figured I could just as well keep it and make this studio portrait of it once it expired.

This is a dead and prepared specimen stacked from 183 exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Metellina ♂

A fully grown male specimen of this species which I assume to be M. mengei due to the fact that it was found in September 2015.

Stacked from 20 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Sigma 180/3.5 + Kenko PRO 300 2X teleconverter.

Hippodamia septemmaculata

Hippodamia septemmaculata5 mm

Rummaging through my archives I stumbled upon this ladybird that I didn't quite recognize. When I shot it I assumed it was a variant of H. tredecimpunctata (which I've seen several times on this location) but I'm glad I had a second look.

Stacked from 44 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Canon MP-E65 @ 3.7X, f/4.5 (+ a few @f/7.1), 0.6s

Grumpy?

Tipulidae, larva24 mm

This image shows the peculiar rear end of a crane fly larva. So what may appear like a face is in fact... well, the opposite, or the "spiracular area" to be precise. Crane fly larvae breathe through the posterior spiracles and most species have various protrusions ("lobes") surrounding the spiracular area.

Studio stack: Dancing fleas?

Bird fleas, Ceratophyllus gallinaeSize: 2 mm

This is a studio stack of two (dead) bird fleas placed on a microscope slide. I didn't actually position them like this. I placed them on the slide encapsulated in drops of alcohol. However the drops got stuck together and as the alcohol evaporated the fleas were drawn closer to each other and eventually ended up in this configuration. I liked the symmetry so I decided to shoot them as they were :)

I collected these fleas while helping a friend emptying the bird houses at a local golf course (a procedure repeated each year in March). Please see the comment section for more images and info!

Stacked from 21 exposures in Zerene Stacker (lit with two LED-lights).

Studio stack: Osmia

Females of this species have two peculiar horns/protrusions above their mandibles.

This is a studio stack of a dead, cleaned specimen found in my livingroom window.

Stacked from 121 exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7 with reversed Canon 40/2.8 @ 1.3s, f/4.5, ISO100. This is the so called "nonaC 40/2.8" I've described in this post.

Morning Stretch II

Machimus atricapillus ♀, Asilidae 15 mm

The previous post featured a slender robberfly in its typical stretched out pose. And here is another species displaying one of its most characteristic morning pose! For some reason Machimus-species seem to prefer this head-down-abdomen-up sleeping position.

The fly remained very still and gave me the ability of trying out several different angles rendering various backgrounds and lightings.

This was stacked from 23 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Sigma 180/3.5 + Kenko PRO300 2X converter. According to the exif, the aperture was f/13 but this is slightly misleading – the nominal aperture is f/6.3. The reason for this discrepancy is the teleconverter which prompts the camera to report some kind of effective aperture (but it's not even that, since magnification is not considered, so I consider it to be a pseudo-effective-aperture-value)

Morning Stretch

Leptogaster cylindrica ♂, Asilidae, Slender robberfly14 mm

This slender robberfly displays the characteristic resting pose of this species. Robberflies are typically very robust but this genus (Leptogaster) has this delicate appearence. Slender robberflies seem perfectly adapted to vertical perches such as grass and I don't recall ever seeing one on a horizontal surface.

Shot in July 2015 and stacked from 13 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Sigma 180/3.5 @ 1/4s, f/7.1, ISO100

On a Burnt Pine Trunk

Choerades gilvusSize: 17 mm

This robberfly was found on the bark of a large burnt pine tree an early morning in October 2015. It's from one of my visits to a huge forest fire area in central Sweden (I've mentioned it before in my stream).

I'm fascinated by the metallic flake shimmer of the burnt bark.

Stacked from 27 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Sigma 180/3.5.

Female Fallbeetle on Thrift

Cryptocephalus sericeus7 mm

Thrift flowers (Armeria maritima) definitely seem to be a favorite among this species.

Stag Beetle on Ice

Lucanus cervus , Lucanidae, Stag beetleSize: 42 mm

Ok, here's the story of how Swedish roadkill became a 4 ton ice sculpture in Canada: Last summer I was contacted by a PR-agency working to promote an exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. They were specifically looking for an up close portrait of a stag beetle since these would be featured in the exhibition. I was on vacation and didn't have access to my library so I wasn't sure I would be able to provide them with it. This was in August which means stag beetles, while relatively common at the location, were well past their peak (early-mid July) so I had little hope of actually finding one. Coincidentally I stumbled across a squashed specimen on a road just hours later. It looked pretty bad from above but the underside of the front portion was intact, so I cobbled together a simple studio setup on the porch, got to work and sent over the image you see here. They decided to go ahead with it and we made a licensing agreement.

It all went along quickly and smoothly and I must confess I'd forgotten about it when, yesterday, I got an email from the agency who just wanted to let me know that the stag beetle had been turned into a 9000 lbs ice sculpture! I think the sculpture is way cooler than the image (pun or not). See comment section on flickr for images! I want to give kudos to clients who're able to take full advantage of the "unlimited use" clause!

Stacked from 35 images in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Sigma 180/3.5, Kenko PRO300 2X.

Leaf-Cutter Bee

♂ Megachile willughbiellaSize: 8-9 mm

Early morning portrait of a dew covered leaf-cutter bee resting on a grass spike.

Stacked from 47 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65 @ 0.4s, f/6.3, ISO100

Gaurotes on Chamomile

Gaurotes virginea10 mm

Early morning stack of this relatively small longhorn beetle on a closed chamomile (Matricaria recutita) flower.

Stacked from 66 natural light eexposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65 @ 0.4s, f/6.3, ISO100

Jumping spider

Dendryphantes rudis female5mm

A 5 mm long Dendryphantes rudis female has caught a tiny spider for dinner.

Aromia Sunrise II

Aromia moschata, Musk beetleSize: 30 mm

This is the musk beetle form the last post shot from a different angle. I was able to turn the entire perch 120°, so all that really changed was the angle of the light – but that obviously makes a huge difference!

Stacked from 17 exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Sigma 180/3.5 @ 0.4s, f/11, ISO100

Aromia Sunrise

Aromia moschata, Musk beetleSize: 30 mm

Arguably one of the most beautiful beetles in Europe. In this shot you can't see the metallic coloration but I think the silhuette is quite elegant as well.

I found this specimen nicely perched on this Tanacetum (tancy) an early morning in July. As I was experimenting with different angles my liveview display suddenly flashed white and as I adjusted the exposure I saw this as my lens caught a thin ray of the rising sun, filtered through the trees and vegetation in the background. So, the bright patch is a large out of focus highlight caused by the wide aperture setting.

I should say that I'm not at all a fan of the elaborate out of focus highlights celebrated in some circles. But I liked the jagged texture caused by the light being filtered through vegetation here.

Single shot at f/4.5 except for the antennae which were manually stacked from two additional exposures.

Stacked from 37 natural light exposures shot on a breezy morning in late July.

Canon 5DmkII, Sigma 180/3.5 @ 0.8s, f/10, ISO100

Raft Spider

Dolomedes fimbriatusSize (body): 22 mm

This is the largest spider species we have here in Sweden. Obviously, it's nothing compared to what can be found in many other places, but it's still a fairly impressive animal. Especially when you consider the ease with witch, even fully grown females such as this one, can move over a water surface. This one dove down and hid beneath the log you see in the background for a few minutes when I first approached it. But I stayed put and when it resurfaced it completely seemed to ignore my presence (I could even pet it).

Tanbark Borer

Phymatodes testaceus, longhorn beetle (Cerambycidae)Size: 16 mm

This year I encountered this beautiful Cerambycid several times. Typically you'll find this species on the underside of large oak logs during warm summer days, but this one was nicely perched on this lichen-covered branch early in the morning – practically begging to be photographed. It looks pristine with every little hair intact and vivid coloration so I'm guessing it's a newly hatched specimen. It's a variable species in terms of coloration but this is probably the most common variety.

Stacked from 45 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Sigma 180/3.5 @ 1/8s, f/7,1, ISO100

Framed bee

Melittidae? Size: 8 mm

Early morning stack from mid July 2015.

I thought this bee had framed itself so nicely I couldn't resist shooting it from this angle. When I was done with the sequence I wanted to turn it around in my subject clamp in order to shoot it laterally and dorsally for ID-purposes. However, I was clumsy and nudged the clamp with my foot. When I looked up the bee was gone, so this is all I have...

Sleeping on Bedstraw

During this very dark season I've found processing summer shots to have an almost therapeutic effect! This is an early morning stack from July 2015.

Stacked from 29 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65 @ f/6.3, 0.5s, ISO100

Fox Moth II

♂ Macrothylacia rubiWingspan ≈ 60 mm

A frontal view of the fox moth I posted a dorsal view of a couple of weeks ago.

Stacked from 45 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Sigma 180/3,5 @ 1/6s, f/8, ISO100

Gaurotes virginea

Gaurotes virginea, CerambycidaeSize: 10 mm

Early morning stack of this little long horn beetle on a cow parsely flower (Anthriscus sylvestris).

Stacked from 55 natural light exposures in Zerene stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65 @ 0.4s, f/6,3, ISO100

Hylaeus Bee

♀ Hylaeus confusus, Colletidae (ID-cred: G. Holmström) Size: 7 mm

These little bees have interesting front legs. They appear smaller and weaker than the the remaining four legs and are often kept elevated like in this image. I've noticed they often use them for cleaning etcetera, so they are certainly not useless. Still, they remind me a little of the vestigial front legs you'll find in certain butterfly species.

This is another stack shot during my trip to the isolated island Gotska Sandön in the Baltic sea.

Stacked from 17 natural light exposures in Zerene stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65 @ f/5.6, 0.5s, ISO100

Ladybug on fern

Cocinella septempunctata, Seven spot ladybird8 mm

I've already dubbed it the world's most photographed beetle in a previous post so I wasn't sure about posting this one. But... this was such a beutiful specimen and it's perched on the underside of a fern leaf, packed with sori.

Stacked from 39 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Canon MP-E65 @ 2.2X, 1/5s, f/5.6, ISO100

Postfire forest

Neoitamus sp. (Asilidae), (ID-cred: P. Hall & M. Persson)Size: 13 mm

This was shot during a trip to a huge wildfire area in June. The forest fire raged in the summer of 2014 and was declared a national emergency, eventually encompassing 17,000 hectares.

Though this fire was of course a traumatic event for many local residents it has undeniably created an interesting and valuable environment from a biological standpoint. Especially since a fairly large portion of the fire area has now been protected as a natural reserve, many species will benefit from the fire.

Stanislav and I have made a few trips to this area and this was shot during an early morning session in June this year. We found plenty of these fairly small robberflies scattered in the singed pine twigs. The dark background is a tree stump, turned into charcoal by the fire.

Stacked from 30 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65 @ f/5.6, 1/4s, ISO100

Full Spectrum Wasp

Holopyga cf. generosa, Cuckoo waspSize: 7 mm

These little wasps are always a delight to find. Their colors are truly astonishing.

This one proved to be a bit of a challange to get a successful stacking sequence of and I ended up having to manually combine the results from two similar but separate stacking sequences. One was 24 exposures @ 1/20, f/5.6, ISO100. The other was 25 exposures @ 1/15, f/7.1, ISO200.

Sony NEX-7, Canon MP-E65

Xysticus on Geranium

♀ Xysticus cf. cristatus (Thomisidae) ID-cred: T. HolmgrenSize: 8 mm

A female crab spider on the colorful leaves of Geranium macrorrhizum. Despite the fall colors this image was actually taken in mid July. Judging from the girth of her abdomen I'm guessing this spider is about to lay eggs.

Stacked from 14 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Sigma 180/3.5 @ 1/20s, f/8, ISO100

Small Parasitoid Wasp

Braconidae, Probably subfamily DoryctinaeSize: 4-5 mm

During a night session in July I found several of these little wasps, drilling for hosts in a freshly felled aspen trunk.

Tiny Pillbugs

Armadillidium pulchellumØ 2.5 mm (roughly 5 mm when extended)

I found these nicely colored pillbugs underneath the bark of an old decaying birch just a minute's walk from my doorstep. If my ID is correct, it does not appear to be a very common species. That is, it's not often being reported. In fact, mine appears to be the most northern record of this species (in Sweden) and the closest find is more than 150 km from here (with mostly sea in between) or > 300 km to the second closest find. However, something tells me this is a grossly overlooked (and under reported) group of arthropods, and it wouldn't surprise me if this species is much more common than we think.

Stacked from five handheld exposures in Zerene Stacker. Each 1/60, f/10, ISO100.

Pearly Heath on Allium

I peculiar detail that I didn't notice while shooting this, is how it got its proboscis curled around its leg.

Stacked from 17 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Sigma 180/3.5 @ 0.5s, f/11, ISO100

Megachilid on rose II

♂ Megachile willughbiellaSize: 8-9 mm

A closer view of the bee from the previous post. The bee is "waking up" here and paused it's morning grooming enough for me to shoot a quick sequence of shots. Shortly after shooting this, it wiped it's antennae and flew away as shown in this youtube clip.

The enlarged hairy front legs are used to cover the eyes of the female during the mating ritual.

Stacked from 29 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7 + Canon MP-E65 @ 4X, 1/6s, f/7.1, ISO100

Megachilid on rose

♂ Megachile willughbiellaSize: 8-9 mm

The enlarged hairy front legs are used to cover the eyes of the female during the maing ritual.

Stacked from 31 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Sony NEX-7, Sigma 180/3.5 @ slightly below 1:1, 1/30s, f/8.0, ISO100.

Studio stack: Cuckoo wasp

A species in the difficult Chrysis ignita group.Size: 7-8 mm

Posting this from my hotel room one day before the opening of my biggest exhibition yet at ABECITA Museum of Modern Art in Borås, Sweden. This image is one of 62 large format prints (averaging at above 100cm).

This particular image is also featured in my most recent book "Livet som minimonster" ("Life as a mini-monster") – a children's book focusing on the fascinating life cycles of insects and spiders (see comment section).

Fairy Moth

♂ Adela cuprella Adelidae7.5 mm

The most prominent feature of these little moths is arguably their very long antennae. In males they are several times longer than the body – see comment section for a lower magnification view. On closer inspection I think I find their metallic scales to be an even more attractive feature though.

Stacked from 27 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Canon MP-E65 @ 3.7X, 1/15s, f/5.6 and f/7.1, ISO200

Robber and noctuid eggs

Machimus (Tolmerus) atricapillusSize: 15 mm

This grass spike was almost completely covered in noctuid (moth) eggs. I don't think this robber fly took much notice though.

Stacked from 10 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.

A few additional shots in the first comment on flickr, including one showing the setup.

Sympecma

Winter Damselfly, Sympecma fusca

Early morning stack shot in May 2014 during a macro workshop I held.

Some tricky direct sunlight hitting the subject from behind/left. Obviously this would have been easy to diffuse/shade but I wanted to capture how the sun highlighted the fine hairs on head and thorax and the well defined leg shadow on the grass.

23 natural light exposures stacked in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Canon MP-E65 @ 2.2X, 0.4s, f/6.3, ISO200

Egg laying Jewel Beetle

Agrilus sp., Buprestidae (I'm leaning towards A. suvorovi)Size: 9 mm

A bluish variety of the Agrilus from the previous post. At least I think it's the same species – they seemed quite variable in coloration, ranging all the way from bronze to green and blue.

This female specimen has deposited eggs on a beaver felled Aspen log and is now in the process of "brushing". This means covering them with some kind of secretion. She does this by repeatedly brushing the tip of her abdomen over the the eggs whilst excreting some fluid. See the comment section for a youtube clip showing this process!

This is a single handheld (mixed light) exposure, manually patched with a few pixels from a consecutive frame in order to get the entire eye in focus.

Studio stack: Ceruchus eye, 20X

This is a 20X view of the eye of this stag beetle. I found the pitted texture surrounding the eye to be particularly interesting. This species is very rare here in Sweden (I'm yet to find one in the field). This specimen was borrowed from Stanislav's collection (collected by him in the eastern part of the Czech Republic). It's been featured at lower magnification in a couple of earlier posts.

Stacked from 156 exposures in Zerene Stacker. Shot at ≈20X and slightly cropped.

Large Mayfly

Ephemera vulgata ♂ (ID-cred: C. Raper) EphemeridaeSize: 19 mm

These spend 2-3 years as larvae but very short time as adults (a few days). They do not feed as adults (and lack functioning mouthparts) but are completely focused on reproduction. In essence, they finish off their life as flying genitals.

Studio stack: Xylotrechus

Studio portrait of this very common long horned beetle. In the comment section on flickr: https://flic.kr/p/qFXU8N you'll find some field shots as well as a youtube-clip featuring this beetle.

This species is not as colorful as some of its close relatives but it's beautifully shaped and I'm always pleased to find it. Funny how some species becomes "favorites" despite the fact that you can't put your finger on exactly what makes them special... In this case there might simply be some pavlovian explanation behind it – these guys show up my favorite time of year (June) when everything is pleasant: sun is shining, birds are singing and everything is growing, breeding, living...

This portrait shows a dead/prepared specimen, shot under studio conditions and stacked from 120 exposures in Zerene Stacker.

I haven't seen the English print version yet, but can only hope the print/production quality is on par with the Swedish, Finnish and Danish editions.

**

This little spider was found in the winter while searching for hibernating bugs (two years ago). I shot it in the field as documented in this video clip from the occasion: youtu.be/EpbCngGAIkA. I brought the specimen with me for ID. It was preserved in the freezer for a few months.

Queen of Spain Fritillary II

Issoria lathonia, Nymphalidae

Body length: 17 mm

Normally I wouldn't post two such similar images but in this case I thought it was interesting to note how the light changed in just 10 minutes. Here, the sun has come up more and it's now shining on the meadow in the background. In this time, while I was busy with another subject, the butterfly had moved to a slightly higher position but still remained on the same plant.

25 exposures stacked in Zerene Stacker.

Canon 5DmkII, Canon MP-E65 @ 1X, 1/80s, f/5.6

Earthworm in the studio!

This earthworm is one of the featured bugs in the book. Like most images in the book it was shot specifically for this, and here I wanted to capture the bristles called setae on the worm's body! They provide grip against the substrate and thus help the worm to move both forward and backward!

This is a studio stack of a prepared specimen. It's stacked from 45 exposures and in Zerene stacker.